A Good Book & What's For Tea?

I finished this book the other day. I really enjoyed it. I don't think there's one book of hers that I've read that I didn't like. She's an American author and writes books based in the south. From the descriptions I'd love to visit some of these places!

Here's a blurb I copied from Amazon

Eleanor Murray will always remember her childhood on Edisto Island, where her late father, a local shrimper, shared her passion for music. Now her memories of him are all that tempers the guilt she feels over the accident that put her sister in a wheelchair—and the feelings she harbors for her sister’s husband.

To help support her sister, Eleanor works at a Charleston investment firm during the day, but she escapes into her music, playing piano at a neighborhood bar. Until the night her enigmatic boss walks in and offers her a part-time job caring for his elderly aunt, Helena, back on Edisto. For Eleanor, it’s a chance to revisit the place where she was her happiest—and to share her love of music with grieving Helena, whose sister recently died under mysterious circumstances.

An island lush with sweetgrass and salt marshes, Edisto has been a peaceful refuge for Helena, who escaped with her sister from war-torn Hungary in 1944. The sisters were well-known on the island, where they volunteered in their church and community. But now Eleanor will finally learn the truth about their past: secrets that will help heal her relationship with her own sister—and set Eleanor free....

She writes what Mum would have called Family Stories although I think they are considered Womens' Fiction. Her books are ones that I read over and over again. I did have both physical and ebook copies of most of them, but I got rid of duplicates in my decluttering attempts. 

What was for tea tonight? Chicken Quesadillas. These are a family favourite. Basically, they are chicken cooked in seasoning, peppers, onions, cheese in tortilla shells (toasted in the oven) and served with sour cream and guacamole.

I took some photos with my phone and put them in a collage! Hope everyone had a good day!

Food/Recipes - What do you Cook?

Being laid up the last few weeks I have to admit that I've watched more than my fair share of cooking programmes over that time (there seems little else on). It's got me thinking about food and recipes. The weather is certainly warming up and soups and heavy meals don't seem the thing to be eating. It seems as though I've got in a little bit of a habit cooking the same meals. I need some new recipes but nothing really appeals. Once it starts really heating up I don't like to turn the oven on too much but eating salads all the time seems to get...well, boring.

So, what do you cook? Are there certain go-to recipes? Is your family meat-and-potatoes? If you experiment do you just make up recipes or is there a place where you like to find them? I do tend to go on All Recipes and look around and I have made some of them. Do you cook a lot of meat? I finally learned to cook pork properly but I'm not that good with beef. I don't eat meat (occasionally white fish) so I don't exactly know how to cook it. If it was me it would be really well done but I don't think that's the correct way to cook it.

Sigh. This post ended up as a bunch of random thoughts, but that's the way my mind's been working lately! Thanks for the input! If you have any recipes you really love (and aren't that complicated) I'd love to give them a go.

Cooking

I learned to cook when I was in school. This was back in the days of Home Economics when you basically learned to cook for your husband. Don't know if anyone remembers the little book you learned from but I remember mine - you learned about the different types of meals men who worked different jobs would need. I didn't mind the lessons though I probably would have liked them more if the teacher I had would have remembered my name. She had taught my older sister (who is ten years older than me) and I always got called by my sister's name.

For a while I lost the enjoyment of cooking. I liked baking - cakes, brownies and cookies, yum. Real food, dinner food,  was basically a way of feeding our family of five on not a lot of money while trying to include the food groups. When I started working full time that added another component to the mix. I'm not superwoman and I wasn't good at juggling everything.

Now that I've taken a breather from work and there aren't so many of us in the house I am rediscovering my enjoyment of cooking meals. I have been cooking from scratch. I don't like fussy things with lots of ingredients that I'll never use again but I do like cooking simple food and trying out new recipes.

This was tonight's dinner. Middle son came up to eat and requested them. Sausage Lasagna Roll-Ups. I did beef because I had it leftover. For mine I left out the meat. These are so yummy. I used to buy prepared lasagne and it always seem to upset my stomach. I don't eat meat and a lot of the prepared foods over here in the US contain meat products even if it isn't a meat-based dish. Cooking my own food means I know what goes into it. My stomach certainly appreciates the extra effort!